By IANS, [RxPG] Ranchi, May 7 - They learn the three Rs of course, but students in a Jharkhand school are also being taught the benefits of drinking 'hadia', the local intoxicant made of rice and the mahua fruit.

According to media reports, children at the Torpa middle school, 70 km from here, were asked Friday by a teacher in the morning assembly what the best beverage was.

When they replied water and milk, Sheela Kumari Horo retorted: 'You do not know anything. The best beverage is hadia.'

The other teachers were stunned and one of them protested. To which Horo reportedly said: 'You do not know anything as you come from Bihar.'

To justify her statement, she told the students that hadia had 'scores of benefits. It keeps the stomach cool and clear and protects during the summer season.'

'We will investigate if such incident has taken place in the school. I cannot comment as I was on leave,' school principal Gurudayal Singh Munda was quoted as saying.